That reminds me of this one time during my first semester teaching here in Korea: the students were doing a writing assignment in class and there was this one boy (I'll call him "Boy #1") who didn't have a pencil. His English wasn't good, so this other boy ("Boy #2") who was sitting next to him tried to help him out by calling me over and letting me know that Boy #1 didn't have a pencil. But instead of saying, "He doesn't have a pencil" or "He needs a pencil," Boy #2 pointed to Boy #1 and said, "He is a pencil." Luckily for them, I understood what he meant to say, but unluckily for them, two girls sitting nearby (both of whom were good at English) overheard what Boy #2 had said and also understood, so they totally cracked up -- just burst out laughing and got a huge kick out of it. Haha.

Once, at my previous school, I gave my students an English dictation quiz (in which I say aloud some sentences in English, and the students have to be able to write out and spell the sentences correctly in English). For the students who got a score of zero, I would make them write the alphabet 5 times for homework and also told them to get their quizzes signed by their homeroom teacher. Anyway, in one of my classes, I asked one of my students who got a zero where his quiz was (since they were supposed to show me their quizzes with their homeroom teacher's signature). He couldn't really answer as his English wasn't good, so a couple other students (who also got zeroes) tried to help him out. They were all kind of struggling to answer me, but finally managed to say that it's "at classroom and home." I just sort of looked at them blankly and repeated in a puzzled tone, "Your quiz is in your classroom and at home?" and they nodded their heads and were like, "Yes!" Hahaha...it was funny -- I couldn't hold in my laughter and just cracked up! (The kids were laughing, too, by the way).

For the students who got perfect scores on their quizzes, I gave them a reward of gum from my home country. One boy was chewing his gum and wanted to tell me that the taste/flavor is much stronger than Korean gum, but he didn't really know how to put it, so he ended up just saying, "Teacher! The gum is....BANG!" and another boy chimed in, "Explosion!" Haha.

Another time at my old school, some students came to clean the English classroom afterschool. After they finished cleaning, they were supposed to let me know that they had finished so that I could dismiss them to go home. However, they didn't know how to say, "Finished," so instead, after thinking about it for a brief moment, one kid finally went, "Uhh...END!" Hahaha.

There was this other time at my old school when the students were playing a shopping game and they weren't allowed to speak in Korean during the game and had to try to speak only in English. For extra incentive to follow this rule, my then-co-teacher and I made a rule that the kids would have to pay us a fine of $5 (we were using fake money for the game, of course) every time we heard them speaking Korean. Anyway, obviously there were some kids who couldn't help it and would speak in Korean, so some other kids were real wise guys and wanted to get the other kids to lose money, so they'd come over to me, point to the kids who spoke in Korean and exclaim, "Korean speak!" to which I'd respond, "Oh, speaking in Korean?" Haha.

Another funny thing that happened during my first semester teaching at my old school was when my then-co-teacher asked one student to tell the rest of the class what he had for breakfast that morning. He answered the Korean foods which he had eaten (rice, kimchi, etc). My then-co-teacher proceeded to ask him what kind of utensil did he use to eat his breakfast. Well, the boy didn't know how to say "chopsticks" in English, so instead he was like, "Uhh...one [holds up an index finger]...one [holds up his other index finger]....ELEVEN!" while acting out the motion of using chopsticks with his fingers! Hahahaha, I got a real kick out of that!

Also, I've had a few occasions when I'm teaching and I ask the students a "yes-or-no" question. The students don't always pick up that the only possible answers are either "yes" or "no," so I try to help them out by repeating the question slowly and then asking, "Yes or no?" to which the students answer, "Yes or no." Ay yi yi...haha.

Similarly, sometimes when I ask my students about the weather that day, and if they don't answer, I try to help them out by asking, "Is it sunny? Or cloudy?" to which they reply, "It's sunny or cloudy." Haha.

(Needless to say, I think Korean kids are a little too accustomed to "listening and repeating" after an NET to the point where they just tend to do it automatically, blindly and robotically at times, without even really comprehending the original question asked in the first place...oy. Haha).

Last year I set up office hours in my class during lunchtime for students who wanted to visit and practice their English. For about 6 months I got no visitors. I was starting to feel discouraged when finally one day a student came bursting through the door and yelled out "Teacher, you hot and cool guy!" and then ran away before I could respond. I work at an all boys school. That was my only visitor. Better than nothing I guess

So during my first summer camp at the English Town I used to work at there was this kid, Joon Ho, that always would come in the office during break and chat it up. He was the best student in the whole camp and could actually carry a conversation; this being elementary school I was more than happy to chat it up with the kid. He was the student that would always use slang and go "What up bro" and give me the hand shake, chest bump greeting. So one day he was in the office and he saw a picture on my computer of pizza or something. He goes "oh delicious". So we start to talk about food. This kid was larger set and you could tell he enjoys to eat. So we started talking about expensive foods. He goes on to say "I like steak, Tuna, sashimi..." and so on with the list of nice foods. I go "wow you have an expensive pallet", the student replied with what I thought was hilarious "Yes teacher, my mouth is expensive". Brilliant, when in retrospect I told him he had an expensive pallet. He told me.

One of my first grade middle school students - choosing an animal picture while we are playing typhoon:Student: Teacher, what is English word for 'gorilla'?Me: It's gorilla.Student: Yes, gorilla.Me: Gorilla.Student: What is English?Me: Gorilla is an English word.Student: Are you sure?Me: Yes.Student eyes me suspiciously. I still don't think she believes me! She used 'King kong' to describe it after that:)

On a daily basis, one of my favorite students, Seok Joon proposes to me. Each time it's the same:

"Emiiillyyyyy! I lubuh you! Will you marry with meeeeee?"

He's also laid claim to me as his possession and if he sees a boy doesn't like talking to me, he'll pull him away saying, "You, no! She is mine!"

Last year, I had groupies at my desk everyday during cleaning time. One day an argument started over which student had the best English. As the argument escalated, finally one girl clapped her hands, threw up double peace fingers and shouted, "Teacha! I English bery well!" When all was said and done, she was actually the winner of the argument.

After summer vacation I asked a few kids if they visited the beach during their time off. One boy giggled and giddily replied, "Oh yes teacher. I go beachee. I wear sunglass and oooooh! I lookie at girl."

Let me start by saying I teach at an Automobile Vocational High School.

Now, this was during my first week at this school in my last class of the week. So I was in a good mood and this is how my "Do you have any questions for teacher Q&A went".

Student1: "Teacher do you have a girlfriend?"Me: "Yes, I do."

Student2: "Y$!^@!%#^$*($)*)@(*$(*@& (Something in Korean)"My Co-Teacher: He said "Teacher how much are PROSTITUTES in America?"Me and my Co-Teacher: HAHAHAHA Laughing uncontrollably!Me: (After gaining some composure) "I have no idea!"Student2: "In Korea Yook man won!"Me: Again I start to laugh! Haha

My students don't have a high English level and especially that student in particular but man are my students fun to teach!

I was teaching body parts to my first graders and they were picking it up really quickly. When I got to the flashcard that showed toes, one little boy shouted out "It's a manicure!"

I really thought that was so cute.

At my previous school I asked my 4th grade students how they were and one little girl replied that it was "raining in her mind" that day. She was such a serious little thing. I just wanted to give her a big hug.

For a whiteboard game I have separate boards for each group. While I was passing them out one student thought he would be funny and wrote "sun of a beach"I heard him saying it out loud and to his group to try and spell it right. But this time my CT and I started laughing as soon as he showed it. My school has asked me to ignore and curse words, which has actually worked they don't try to use them so much when I don't react. But in this case my CT explained the mistake in Korean and the whole class got a good laugh. That kid never tried to curse in my class again!

I have a grade 4 student who likes to sneak up on me and scare me. The girl is stealthily quiet too. The other day she asked me, after scaring me:"Teacha- pee in your pants?""No I didn't pee my pants.""NExt time you pee your pants, Teacha"